ZONE A SPEAKS: From Sankera To Kwande To Jechira, North East Benue Endorses Alia Administration’s Development Agenda

A wave of goodwill has swept across Benue State’s North East Senatorial Zone, as traditional rulers, clergymen, elders and community leaders converged at a series of town hall meetings to declare their overwhelming support for the administration of His Excellency, Rev. Fr. Dr. Hyacinth Iormem Alia, the Executive Governor of Benue state.

From Sankera through Kwande to Jechira, the message was uniform and unmistakable: the people of Zone A are satisfied with the pace and quality of governance under the Alia administration, and they are asking for more of the same.

The town hall meetings, convened specifically to hear directly from the people, turned into an outpouring of appreciation. Traditional rulers spoke of roads that had been impassable for a generation now taking shape. Clergymen commended the renewed attention to education and health. Elders, many of whom have watched successive administrations come and go, said this one was different, an administration, they noted, that plans with intention and delivers with consistency.

Central to the applause was the ongoing construction of over 176 kilometres of roads across the zone, a scale of road investment residents say the North East has not witnessed in living memory. Community after community used the town halls to point to specific stretches now under construction, describing them as long overdue arteries that will finally connect farms to markets, students to schools and families to healthcare.

On education, the administration’s decision to construct high-rise, storey buildings for government-owned primary schools across the zone drew particular praise. Parents and elders described dilapidated, overcrowded classrooms as a defining frustration of the past; the sight of modern, multi-storey school buildings rising in their communities was repeatedly cited as proof of a government that sees children as a priority, not an afterthought.

That commitment has been matched with people. The administration’s employment of teachers drawn from the sons and daughters of the zone into the primary education system was singled out for commendation, both as a boost to local livelihoods and as a guarantee that the classrooms being built will not stand empty for lack of hands to run them.

Residents also welcomed visible improvement in the primary healthcare sector, alongside progress on the long-anticipated Katsina Ala Water Works, a project many communities have waited years to see move forward. For a zone where access to potable water has remained a persistent challenge, movement on the waterworks was received as one of the clearest signals yet that the administration listens and acts.

On security, elders and community leaders acknowledged the administration’s ongoing collaboration with the Federal Government to confront insecurity in parts of the region, describing it as a necessary and welcome partnership at a time when peace remains the foundation on which every other development stands.

Across every session, one appeal echoed loudest: that Governor Alia sustain the momentum until Benue State is decisively led out of the woods of underdevelopment. The people of Zone A made clear that what they have seen so far, roads, schools, teachers, water, security cooperation, and more, is not merely a checklist of projects but evidence of an administration that is people-oriented, people-centred and development-bound.

For a zone once associated more with neglect than with progress, the tone from Sankera to Kwande to Jechira has shifted decisively. The verdict from the town halls is clear: an administration this intentional, residents say, deserves nothing less than the continued support of the people it serves.

Hon. Chief Solomon Iorpev, Honorable Commissioner for information and Orientation.